The forum has been a little slow so far this winter so I thought I'd toss out something I've been meaning to start a thread on. Who has inspired you for modeling?

For me, all of the regulars in freerails have given me inspiration at one time or another, but a few that I really take note of are Herb, Dave, Woody, Paladin, On2rails (Joey).

I also draw inspiration from modelers such as Pelle Soeborg who has contributed a lot of expert articles for Model Railroader Magazine, Rod Stewart, and George Sellios.

For those that don't know, Rod Stewart is not only a great musician, but also a very fine model railroader in my opinion. And of course, George Sellios with his Franklin and South Manchester Railroad has been inspiring people for many years.

Realistically, I can never be as great as these fine gentlemen at modeling, but I still take notes when they share info.

I'm an "oldster" too! For me, it was John Allen with his great photos for Varney on the rear cover of Model Railroader. I also enjoyed stuff by Ellison, Towers, and Armstrong. But it was John Allen with his abilities and wit that captured me as a child.

Of course my father was a model builder for an architecture firm at the time and member of the local model railroad club who was also an inspiration and taught me a lot at a very young age.

I'm still inspired by today's model railroaders, but will never have their talent. When you stop learning new things, it's time to die.

Joey, Woodie, Dave, Ray, Bernd, Matin, Franke, Dallas.... I know I'm forgetting a bunch of guys. The list could go on and on. This place easily has the best collection of modelers on the net. What's more, they are all approachable too.

For myself, there are quite a few--but three stand out--in the order that their skills impressed me.

First, John Allen--A superb modeler, and even better photographer, The photos that Stumpy mentioned were the first that I was aware of, that looked like the real thing. Had to look at how many ties had spikes missing to realize (to my young eyes) that the scene wasn't real. Artist that he was, John always tried to cast a shadow to hide the non prototype Baker couplers that he used.

Second. Bill Hoffman-- About the time that I became aware of his work, my visits to the old Philadelphia Model Railroad club's annual open house, which featured a massive O scale layout in the old B&O station
convinced me to give up on HO and go to O and in particular--O Traction (trams to the civilized world). About the same time there was an article in MR about Hoffman's prolific and very accurate modeling. He built a model of nearly every car in the Sacromento & Northern's roster, Being able to crank out a car body per day in his favorite material, basswood--which he even scribed himself (this was back when Northeastern was just starting out) his efforts made me drool Bill worked in 17/64''= 1' --to make the 1 1/4'' O track gauge work out to 4' 8 1/2'' A concept that started out before the second World War--but which died out, except for a few stalwarts--as bill was-- by the late '50's.

Third--And I think that the person that most influenced my early modeling-- was Bill Schopp. Bill wrote traction articles in the old Model Craftsman. His modeling was about average (a little crude by todays standards) but it looked attainable to a teen age kid--VS the first two gentlemen. Visits to Bills home to see his work re-enforced this impression. Bill was always willing to take time to answer questions, and I traded some of my HO equipment with him for O scale stuff--when I made the change. Bill wrote in Craftsman for many years, later-after the name change to Railroad Model craftsman- writing nearly all the articles in some issues. To avoid the appearance of this, he used various pen names besides his own--Layout Doctor, and John Kemp, were the most common, besides his real name. Bill had been a teacher in the Philadelphia school system--but for some strange reason, I didn't hold that against him

I realize that the names of the second and third gentlemen will be unknown to most--and John Allen's to only a few-- but you have to remember that i used to ride a dinosaur to High School (uphill--both ways!)

Whilst I am aware of John Allen, thanks, recently to my old chum Rich Redfern on Florida, my influences are all, naturally, English.

As an 8 year old, I bought my first copy of Railway Modeller, unknown to my parents and in it was an article called "Does your railway live?". I didn't know for many years that the pictures were of anything other than the real thing. The modelmaker and author of such memorable lines as "He looked across the harbour from whence he had come", was George Iliffe Stokes, the finest architectural modelmaker who ever lived and my main inspiration for to this day. I still ask myself if what I've just made would be acceptable to George.

Then there was Jack Nelson, an inspiration and a personal mentor, whose love and knowledge of the London & North Western Railway, The "Premier Line" and whose knowledge of scale, perspective and most importantly real scratchbuilding from absolute raw materials informed and encouraged my modelmaking to this day. Jack bought me my first sheet of nickel silver and a Skinley drawing of an LNER V1 tank loco.

Finally, John H. Ahern, whose trio of Model......Construction books I have to this day by my chair....Locomotive, Building and Landscape. You need no other.

These days, being of a certain age, I find nothing to inspire, as it's all been done before, but with more soul.

Martin

____________________Manifestly it is better to use simple tools expertly than to possess a bewildering assortment of complicated gadgets and either neglect or use them incompetently. ( L.T.C.Rolt) Blog @ http://oddsoracle.blogspot.co.uk/